New Delhi: The parents of Nirbhaya, who was brutally gang-raped here on December 16, 2012, were upset on Wednesday and fiercely opposed the release of the convict who was found to be a juvenile at the time of the crime.

"If a juvenile commits a heinous crime, he must be kept with wild animals. We must not set them free. Our laws are flawed. The juvenile laws should be made applicable only for the people committing petty crimes, not for heinous crimes," Nirbhaya's father Badrinath said here, as the convict gets ready to walk free on December 20.

Badrinath said he will continue his fight to seek justice for his daughter.

"It is quite agonising. Do not know if Indian women will ever have a safe and secure environment. We will keep fighting. It will help my daughter's soul rest in peace," he added.

Ranjana Kumari, director, Centre for Social Research (CSR), also spoke on the occasion to mark the third anniversary of the horrifying gang rape.

"A lot needs to be done. We will find ourselves nowhere in our fight against women if we work with the proverbial approach of 'slow and steady wins the race'. We need to involve schools, colleges, universities, police and other stakeholders to taking on the menace of crime against women," Ranjana Kumari said.

She pointed out that the Nirbhaya fund, unused since its initial announcement in 2013, needs to be utilized to provide a safer environment for women.

She cited National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data and said that an increase of 9.2 percent was reported in crime against women during 2014 as compared to 2013.

According to the NCRB report, there were 3,37,922 cases of crime against women in 2014 as compared to 3,09,546 such cases in 2013.

Lalitha Kumarmangalam, the chairperson of National Commission for Women (NCW), said: "We at the NCW are working to devise a multi-pronged strategy to ensure swift action and speedy trial in cases of crime against women." (IANS, Image:Quint)